Top Ten Tuesday: Most Memorable Dogs in Fiction

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week has no assigned theme so I decided to write about memorable dogs in fiction:

Lufra, the Baluchistan Hound in Frederica by Georgette Heyer (1965), is not as exotic as he sounds.  Frederica gets into trouble when she takes the family dog for a walk in London and invokes the name of her aristocratic relative to appease those complaining about his behavior. My reviews.

Spell the Month in Books – December 2024

Can you spell the month in books?  All from books I read this year:

Daughter of Lir by Diana Norman (1988). This was an outstanding historical novel set in 12th century Ireland that is funny in some parts and harrowing in others. Irish-born Finola (you know I like orphans) is abandoned and then brought up at a famous French convent and renamed Sister Boniface.

Fontevraud Abbey, France

My September 2024 Reading

A few books stood out this month, including Radio Girls, about the early days at the BBC, and The Trap, the newest book about Emma Makepeace. I also enjoyed The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher, which follows what seems like a recent trend in senior citizen sleuths but features an appealing heroine who is both vulnerable and resilient. I couldn’t decide if I liked or disliked The Second Lady by Irving Wallace but I couldn’t stop reading! There were also some disappointments.

Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones, a Chrestomanci novel

When Anthea Tesdinic turns her back on her family and leaves for university, her brother Conrad is left at the mercy of his magician uncle Alfred and his distracted mother. Conrad helps out at the bookstore his father and uncle founded in the English alps and hopes to attend high school until Uncle Alfred says he has bad karma, likely due to something he did in a previous life. 

My March 2024 Reading

This month’s best reads were all historical fiction: The Phoenix Crown, set around the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco; Daughter of Lir by Diana Norman, about an abbess in medieval Ireland; and Wheel of Fortune by C.F. Dunn, in which a 15th century orphan learns she is powerless against men who should be her protectors.

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

Title: Enchanted Glass
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Publication: Greenwillow Books, hardcover, 2010
Genre: Juvenile fantasy
Setting: Present day England

Description: Aidan Cain, an orphan who just lost his grandmother, ran away from foster care when unnerved by the mysterious creatures that have started pursuing him. In desperation, he took the train to a village outside London to find a sorcerer his grandmother had corresponded with for years, only to learn old Jocelyn Brandon is dead.

October 2021 Reads

Another varied month of reading.  My favorites were Other People's Children, The Night Fire,  and Anthem (no, not Ayn Rand, be serious). Have you read any of these?

Fiction

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021) – Klara’s destiny is to accompany a needy teen home as a companion and she is hand-picked by Josie and her mother because of her unusual empathy. This was a Book Group choice that started out well but turned out to be only so so. My mini-review.

Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones #1976Club

Title: Power of Three
Author: Diana Wynne Jones (1934-2011)
Publication: Greenwillow, hardcover, 2003 (originally published in 1976)
Genre: Juvenile fantasy

This review is for the #1976Club, hosted by StuckinaBook and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, in which bloggers are invited to read and review books that were published that year.

Description: A generation ago, Adara’s brother killed a defenseless Dorig for his intricate gold collar, unleashing a terrible curse.

Cart and Cwidder (Dalemark Quartet, Book 1) by Diana Wynne Jones

Title: Cart and Cwidder, Dalemark Quartet, Book 1
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Publication: Greenwillow, hardcover, 1975
Genre: Children’s Fantasy

Plot: Clennen, his wife Lenina, and their three children are traveling musicians, and among the few who move between the North and South regions of Dalemark. His parents deliver messages and gossipy news as they travel and sometimes take passengers with them. There are political overtones: the South is more restrictive and “[y]ou dared not put a good, or a word, out of place for fear of being clapped in jail.”

Charmed Life (Book Review) #1977Club

The 1977 Club is a theme in which two prolific bloggers, Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings, promote a specific year of published books. Anyone can join in by reading and reviewing a book published in 1977 and adding a link to that book's review in the comments on Simon's blog. 1968 and 1951 have also been promoted recently. 

Title: Charmed Life (Book 1 in the Chrestomanci quartet)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Publication: 1977, Beech Tree Books paperback edition
Genre: Children's Fantasy

Plot: As the younger brother of imperious Gwendolen, a talented young witch, Cat is used to being ignored and he is happy that way. But after their parents die and the town authorities put them in charge of elderly Mrs. Sharp, Gwendolen writes to their parents' oldest friend, Chrestomanci, about their situation.